Individuality, Free Will, Power of Choice

The principles that protect individuality are being shredded. Privacy, authorship, intellectual property and competition and copyrights have been emasculated and reduced to a shadow or distant memory of their initial intended purpose. The most central tenet of individualism – free will and power of choice – have been supplanted by the newest and latest automatic mechanical discoveries of the tech company giants.

They hope to “help” us with algorithms that suffocate us with “helpful suggestions” of news we read, watch, or listen to, all the goods we buy, our pastimes, and the friends we should spend our time with.

It’s time to consider the consequence of these monopolies, to reassert our own role in determining the human path. For once we transform the core values of individuality, abandon privacy, reduce free will, freedom of choice to the “all for one – one for all” mentality, there’s no turning back. We’ve lost the most important element of human nature; we’ve lost the individual.

New-fangled products and produce have embedded themselves so deeply in everyday life it has taken decades for us to understand the price we paid for their convenience, efficiency, and abundance. By the time we came to understand the consequences of these “helpful” changes in the way we live our lives, the damage had been done to our diets, health, longevity, individuality, free will and ultimately our survival as human beings on this planet.

Our habits, behaviors, likes and dislikes, beliefs, goals and purposes are altered to align with some secret plan developed by those behind the curtain pulling the strings.

Independent thinkers, freelance writers, photographers, musicians and artists of all kinds are succumbing to the relentless pressure to conform to the dictates of powerful monopolistic firms that squash competition and diversity of opinion. The idea that every participant “deserves” a medal, currently in vogue, is antipathetic to the recognition of what it takes to be “the best” at any one time.

When thoughts, abilities and talents are homogenized to the degree that there is no discernable difference between us, we are left with the monotony of uniformity and sameness where nothing is exceptional and where being an average, moderate plugging success is the desired and accepted norm; where the “old-school” boundaries between true and false, between fact and fiction have disappeared, where misinformation is spread and unquestionable accepted virally without hesitation.

The native qualities that differentiate us all as individuals are fading, replaced by the dull sameness of everyone. And we’ve eroded the capability and power of our most precious asset; our attention.